Fall 2016 Semester Goals

August 28, 2016

Setting goals is something I’ve only just recently taken seriously. I used to just internally tell myself, “Oh wouldn’t it be cool if I didn’t get any B’s this semester?” While yes, that is a good goal to have and a good thing to tell yourself, if you don’t do anything else with that thought, then is it really a goal?

Personally, I believe that it’s only a goal if you write it down. Anything else is just a dream, hope, wish or idea.

I promise I’m not just spewing crap at you either. Writing things down has its benefits. It’s proven that if you write down your goals you’re more likely to remember them, work on them and therefore achieve them.

Having them written down somewhere is also helpful because then you can go back to them and check in on how you’re doing or see what goals you set that you might have forgotten about. I also recommend putting little boxes next to each goal so when you complete them you can check it off! I love doing this because I’m a big to-do list person and crossing something off my list gives me a rush. #nerd

In addition to writing down your goals, I encourage you to write down why you want to achieve them. This will serve as your motivation to not give up (something I know I could use on some of my more lofty goals).

Oh, and remember don’t set goals that aren’t realistic. If you know that you are the kind of person who never wakes up early, then don’t make it a goal to be up before 8 a.m. every day. However, you could break that goal down and work on waking up five or 10 minutes earlier every week of the semester.

My last tip before I share my goals is to not make them vague. You want to be specific as possible. Instead of saying, “I want to do better in my classes.” Say something like, “I want to have at least a B average in all of my classes.” Or instead of, “I want to workout more.” Say something along the lines of, “Go to the gym more than once a week.”

Without further adieu, here are my fall semester goals:

Maintain a 3.6 GPA

This is the minimum GPA requirement to be on the Dean’s List at my school. I was able to achieve it fall semester last year, but not in the spring, so I’m determined to do it both semesters this time around.

Make reviewing my notes a habit

Confession time: I never studied in high school. (Sorry to all my former teachers.)

This didn’t affect my grades too much first semester last year, but it really bit me in the butt second semester. It lowkey makes me annoyed with myself because if I would have studied more then I totally would have gotten on the Dean’s list both semesters. So there’s my motivation for this goal.

Don’t save all my homework for Sunday

Last semester I got into a really bad habit of letting all my homework pile up all week, and then spend six hours or more getting it all done on Sunday. This really stressed me out and made my weekends super boring, so I’m going to try and space my workload out more this semester.

Don’t miss more than two classes total

Skipping classes is really not my thing, but sometimes I just have to take a day off. I set the top off at two because as soon as you do it once it’s very tempting to do it again and again and again and again. Obviously, I don’t want to fall into that trap.

Keep up with the world outside of school

If you read my post about why you should be spending more time with your family then you know that last year I got really trapped in my campus’ bubble. If it wasn’t happening on campus, then it totally slipped my mind and I sort of lost touch with my family (even though they literally live like a half hour or less from my school). I’m not going to let that happen this year.

I also set this as a goal to make myself stay informed of world news. It was something I used to do a lot in high school, but I lost when I came to college.

Go to more school hosted events

Last year (second semester especially) I sort of locked myself in my dorm room. I remember one weekend I holed up in my dorm for 35 hours barely moving. (It was cold outside okay?) As much as I love laying in bed and watching Orange is the New Black all day, I really want to be more involved on campus.

I think I’m doing pretty great so far too! I’ve been to four events and even made it on my school’s Instagram page twice because of it! (Like omg how cool are these two photos? Here and here.)

Be active at least twice a week

Last year I made too extreme of a goal and told myself I had to go to the gym five times a week. I thought it would be easy and normal since I was used to having track practice that often in high school. Um no. Those are two totally different things. This year I decided to scale things back and just make it two so I don’t give myself a mental breakdown or injure myself.

Make two new friends

After I created a group of friends at the beginning of my first semester in college I kind of gave up on making new friends. This sort of sabotaged my social life because if the friends I did have were busy doing their own thing, or were out of town, then I was forced to do everything alone. (The amount of times I ate alone at the dining halls last semester is way too many to count.) This was also probably another contributing factor to why I left my dorm very little except for classes and work last year.

Make my bed every morning

I tried to do this last year but totally failed. So it’s making a comeback this school year, and I’m going to nail it. So far I only haven’t made my bed twice because I woke up late (oops), but every other day I have been doing great.

Making my bed really helps me feel like I have my life together and it helps prevents me from taking random nap breaks and not doing my homework.

What are your goals for this semester? Do we have any in common? Are you a big goal setter? Let me know in the comments below!

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